Substrates in the semiconductor industry are wafer-shaped round or rectangular bodies, which are often thinned, fragile, for example arched, or subject to pretensioning, with a very small thickness of generally less than 300 μm.
Depending on the carrier materials used and the interconnect layer used between the carrier and the wafer, different processes for dissolving or destroying the interconnect layer are known, such as for example the use of UV-light, laser beams, temperature action or solvents.
Separation increasingly constitutes one of the most critical process steps since the substrates with substrate thicknesses of a few μm easy break during stripping/peeling or are damaged by the forces which are necessary for the stripping process.
Moreover thin substrates have hardly any stability of shape or none at all and typically curl without support material. During handling of the re-thinned wafer therefore fixing and support of the wafer are essentially indispensable.
In existing methods and devices the separation of the substrate from the carrier substrate takes place either by lifting off or by rolling off, with the disadvantage that generally considerable forces are acting on the sensitive substrate.